Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Friday delivered a significant setback to the Trump administration’s policy of promoting coal, ruling that the Interior Department acted illegally when it sought to lift an Obama-era moratorium on coal mining on public lands. […]

Last Thursday, the Senate voted 56-to-41 to confirm David Bernhardt, President Trump’s pick for secretary of the interior. Four days later, the department’s inspector general opened an ethics investigation into the new chief for potential “conflict of interest and other violations.” Even by the standards of the ethically elastic Trump administration, this is impressive. A […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency’s newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday voted to confirm David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, as secretary of the interior. The confirmation of Mr. Bernhardt to his new post coincided with calls from more than […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — A previously unreleased invoice indicates that David Bernhardt, President Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, continued to lobby for a major client several months after he filed official papers saying that he had ended his lobbying activities. […]

Out in the way beyond, the open land on the far side of the Mueller report and cable news obsessives, is a vast kingdom now being used to hasten the demise of the planet. You may know this area, more than 500 million acres of empty vales and thick forests, high plains and diamond-cut peaks, […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — President Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department — David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has been accused of conflicts of interest — faced questioning Thursday from senators who must decide whether he is the right person […]

WASHINGTON — After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow. “Woohoo!” Patrice Ashfield, then a branch chief at […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday finalized its plan to loosen Obama-era protections on the habitat of the sage grouse, an imperiled ground-nesting bird that roams across 10 oil-rich Western states. The plan, which would strip away protections for […]

HELENA, Mont. — Federal wildlife officials are proposing to strip endangered species protections from the gray wolf populations in the Lower 48 states, citing significant increases in their numbers across much of the nation. The decision, announced on Wednesday by David Bernhardt, the acting secretary of the Interior Department, is likely to set off another […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — As a lobbyist and lawyer, David Bernhardt fought for years on behalf of a group of California farmers to weaken Endangered Species Act protections for a finger-size fish, the delta smelt, to gain access to irrigation water. As […]

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter. WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday announced he would nominate David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist and current deputy chief of the Interior Department, to succeed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned amid allegations of ethical missteps. In a message […]

WASHINGTON — With Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke departing at the end of the year, the agency will likely be run, at least for a time, by its deputy secretary, David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has played a central role in enacting President Trump’s agenda of rolling back conservation measures and opening up public […]

Ryan Zinke, the secretary of the Interior Department, is the second devoted cheerleader for President Trump’s ill-conceived strategy of “energy dominance” to be ushered out the door. The first was Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Like Mr. Pruitt, Mr. Zinke leaves under a cloud of possible ethical violations. Also like Mr. […]

Ryan Zinke, the secretary of the Interior Department and a key figure in the president’s sweeping plan to reshape the nation’s environmental framework, will leave his post at the end of the year, President Trump said on Saturday. Mr. Zinke’s departure comes amid numerous ethics investigations into his business dealings, travel and policy decisions. “Secretary […]

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — It is the last great stretch of nothingness in the United States, a vast landscape of mosses, sedges and shrubs that is home to migrating caribou and the winter dens of polar bears. Aside from a Native village at its northern tip, civilization has not dented its 19 million acres, an area […]